The present invention relates to channel construction machinery having levelling and material lining application attachments for providing continuous channel construction operations either parallel or at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the channel. When the channel construction equipment travels in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the channel with its extending arms working on the sloped embankments, the apparatus is considered a longitudinal channel construction apparatus. On the other hand, if the equipment travels up and down the sloped embankments, then the apparatus is considered a transverse channel construction apparatus.
On inclined embankments, in the construction of water channels or irrigations channels, according to the longitudinal channel construction process, compacting of the applied channel lining, made from freshly laid concrete, has been performed by using internal vibrators which require vibration chambers. These chambers are arranged in a stepwise fashion and prevent the plasticized concrete from flowing down to the bottom of the channel. Such known channel lining accessories used on the apparatus frames of channel construction machinery are provided with independent vibration elements, which operate in vibration chambers themselves bounded on all sides and immersed in the lining material. The sliding framework which slides over the concrete to form a smooth and level lining is placed in direct contact with the vibrating chamber to thereby make a continuous material lining placement process possible.
Associated with this known material applying accessory is a handling device which is adapted to load the lining material to the vibration chamber from above. Basically, however, such vibration chambers of the prior art are not very accessible, are relatively complicated in their construction and, in particular, are not especially inexpensive to manufacture. In addition, the present operational and maintenance requirements of such vibration chambers are not particularly advantageous.
The prior art lining accessory for channel construction machinery is, moreover, useful strictly for the purpose of lining water channels or irrigation channels. Other tools must now be used for the purpose of levelling the embankment walls to which the lining is applied.
According to the state of the art, levelling accessories, which are incorporated onto implement carriers supported on the machine frame, are completely differently constructed than the lining material placement accessories. Consequently, channel construction machinery is separately built as levelling machinery or as lining machinery with both being present for a complete construction operation or as a single piece of machinery in which separate levelling and lining accessories are used. (See, for example, "Modern Machines for Embankment and Channel Construction" BMT, June 6, 1978, pages 317 ff.)
It is a specific object of the present invention to improve the prior art known channel construction machinery with respect to the present levelling and lining accessories. Moreover, an object of the present invention is to do so in an extremely simple manner.
This objective is accomplished in the present invention by using a single levelling and/or lining attachment which is provided with at least one rotating shaft. The shaft is mounted and driven so as to rotate and is proportioned in length to the length of the embankment section to be worked on. At the circumference of the shaft, i.e., along its outside cylindrical wall, blade-like elements are attached. Blade surfaces of the blade-like elements are directed at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the shaft. The shaft is mounted on an implement carrier in such a manner that it oscillates by being connected to a vibration drive. The implement carrier, however, is mechanically isolated from the vibrations and the oscillations. Channel construction machinery, so designed, is considerably simplified since the processes of levelling and lining are now substantially integrated. During levelling, the excess loosened earth material which may be desirously transported to another location is conveyed in the desired direction. During the material lining process, the existing blade-like elements control the transport of lining material and provide a support function for the previously used partitions of the vibration chamber. Excess lining material is transported in the direction of conveying and to places where lining material is lacking or, if sufficient lining material has been supplied, the excess material is transported further in the sense of an accelerated mode of operation. The amount of material transported is matched to the rate of travel of the machinery.
The structure of the inventive attachment is moreover very simple and can be manufactured particularly inexpensively. The handling of the material is simplified since the rotating shaft is open towards one side. In addition, the blade-like elements can easily be inspected by the simplified construction of the present invention. The easier access to the mechanical elements is a further advantage of the invention. The good, overall view also has a favorable effect on the operating and maintenance requirements. The inventive attachment can be used transversely, as well as at an angle or parallel to the longitudinal axis of the channel depending on the category of apparatus used in the channel construction operation. The motions of the inventive attachment, disclosed herein, can be significantly controlled if, according to a further characteristic of the invention, the blade-like elements can be individually adjusted with respect to the angular relationship between them and the longitudinal axis of the rotating shaft.
A further, simplified development of the present invention is proposed, according to which the blade-like elements are linked together and mounted, in a fixed fashion, as a helix of connected blades surrounding the shaft. In this case, the attachment resembles a worm-type shaft, whose rotational motion assists in conveying the excess earth material or the lining material transversely with respect to the longitudinal axis of the channel. The circumferential line defined by the rotating shaft, which extends parallel to the axis of the rotating shaft, determines the applied thickness of the layer of lining. Greater lengths of embankment walls of large width channels are handled by connecting several of such rotating shafts together elastically and detachably at their connecting ends.
The shaft drive mechanism is mechanically connected to the shafts such that the rotary actuators for the shafts are connected to the exterior ends of the shafts, and located on the berm of the channel. According to a feature of the present invention, each rotating shaft is mounted on a separate and independent implement carrier. The implement carriers, in each case, are supported by the machine frame in such a way as to be isolated from the oscillations directed to the shaft. The present invention replaces former vibration attachments since the vibration drive is now connected between the machine frame and the implement carrier. This vibration drive alters the previous vibration attachments since the vibration drive is now provided on the implement carrier and transfers the axially directed oscillations to the shaft mounted on the implement carrier.
In this connection, it is furthermore advantageous to attach the implement carriers to the machine frame with the interpositioning of damping elements. In this manner, otherwise mechanically harmful oscillations are isolated away from the frame of the machine.
A further improvement of the present invention consists in surrounding the shaft, having the blade-like elements, with a housing and the side walls or housing extension surfaces of the housing forming a sliding formwork for smoothing the just-laid lining material.
Several examples of the operation of the invention are shown in the drawings and are described in greater detail in the following.